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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

One of the
most useful expressions that a Hindi student can learn are: “यह क्या है?” (Yah kyaa hai? – What is this?) or “मतलब?” (Matlab? – What does it mean? Or What do you mean?)

During my four
years in India these have been the most used expressions by me. When living in
a new culture, it is impossible to know the names of the things you’ve never
seen before. Also people in every culture tend to use loads of idioms that need
to be experienced in order to learn. That’s why it is a great idea to turn into
a little child and keep asking the natives: “What is this?”, “Who is that?” and
“What do you mean?”

In this post I’d
like to introduce the main keywords that are mainly demonstrative pronouns
(roughly introduced before), some question words and few very important
nouns. After that I am going to
demonstrate the usage of these words in the examples. I would highly recommend
learning these by heart in the first place when you are going to India. These
are fun and they may become your invaluable tool when communicating in India,
especially when you do not have a dictionary with you.

Our key vocabulary:

यह

yah

this

क्या

kyaa

what

मतलब

matlab

meaning

वह

vah

that

कौन

kaun

who

शब्द

shabd

word
(Hindi)

ये

ye

these

लफ्ज़

lafz

word
(Urdu)

वे

ve

those

चीज़

cheez

(thing; object)

Examples:

1. Asking
what/who is this.

(For best
results you might learn them by heart)

यह क्या है?

Yah
kyaa hai?

What
is this?

यह चीज़ क्या है?

Yah
cheez kyaa hai?

What
is this thing?

यह क्या चीज़ है?

Yah
kyaa cheez hai?

What
is this thing?

यह कौन है?

Yah
kaun hai?

Who
is this?

यह आदमी कौन है?

Yah
aadmee kaun hai?

Who
is this man?

यह औरत कौन है?

Yah
aurat kaun hai?

Who
is this woman?

यह महिला कौन है?

Yah
mahilaa kaun hai?

Who
is this lady?

वे लोग कौन है?

Ve
log kaun hai?

Who
are these people?

क्या मतलब है?

Kyaa
matlab hai?

What
does it mean?

मतलब क्या है?

Matlab
kyaa hai?

What
is the meaning?

इसका मतलब क्या है?

Iskaa
matlab kyaa hai?

What
is its meaning?

मतलब?

Matlab?

What
do you mean? (lit. “Meaning?”)

इस शब्द का मतलब क्या है?

Is
shabd kaa matlab kyaa hai?

What’s
the meaning of this word?

इस लफ्ज़ का मतलब क्या है?

Is
lafz kaa matlab kyaa hai?

What
is the meaning of this word?

अर्थ क्या है?

Arth
kyaa hai?

What
is the meaning? (Another word for “meaning”)

More examples:

2. Asking
whether it is what you thought it was.

क्या यह ताज महल है?

Kyaa
yah Taaj Mahal hai?

Is
this Taj Mahal?

क्या यह देवनागरी लिपि है?

Kyaa
yah Devanagaree lipi hai?

Is
this Devanagari script?

क्या यह आपका घर है?

Kyaa
yah aapkaa ghar hai?

Is
this your house?

क्या आज दीवाली है?

Kyaa
aaj Deewaalee hai?

Is
today Diwali?

3. A dialogue
of an Englishman (or a foreigner) with an Indian friend. Asking about the names
of Bollywood actors.